Hector Tufik Majul, the hockey player deported for being Mexican

01/03/2019

After being deported from the United States, Hector will tie the skates in a new hope from Lithuania.

Hector Tufik Majul. Photo: Twitter

Héctor Tufik Majul, a Mexican hockey player, has not been given anything, he has earned everything with his skills in front of the ice, however, immigration policies were a constant in his sports work in the United States.

In an interview for The New York Times, Majul told his story of successes that have been diminished by the simple reason of being born Mexican in the eyes of the immigration policy of President Donald Trump.

In a country that welcomes several international athletes with open arms, the technicalities of their nationality became a real headache.

From a very young age, at the age of six, he was discovered by Boris Dorozhenko, a trainer and childhood mentor of Majul, who played many years ago with the now former Soviet Union.

"He is an impressive skater (...) the only problem for him was always his Mexican citizenship," revealed Dorozhenko, who observed a talent born in Hector in Mexico City.

Then his mentor got a job in Arizona, and Majul at age 14 followed him to enter the United States on a student visa and became a member of the area hockey clinics.

Majul managed to stay in the United States to study high school with an amateur athlete visa, known as P1, and then with another student visa at Curry College in Massachusetts to play Hockey in Division III in 2015.

However, on August 22, 2017, after returning from a family visit to Mexico, Customs and Border Protection officers at the William P. Hobby Airport in Houston discovered a week's supply in his girlfriend's makeup kit. of Concerta, his medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which is a controlled drug in the United States.

Hector was separated from his partner and interrogated all night, where he confessed that he left Mexico to play hockey with a student visa, which represents a migratory violation.

His dreams and visa are paused until 2022 without being able to return to the country where he gave great victories until Arno Del Curto called him to take a test at the hockey club in Davos in Switzerland.

The same story was repeated because his immigration status became an obstacle again when he needed a paper certifying that he is a professional player before staying in Switzerland.

Everything seemed negative until a former colleague of his childhood mentor in Serbia invited him to join the Hockey Punks team in Lithuania. There he signed a contract and was given an apartment in Vilnius, in addition to all immigration assistance.

In Lithuania, there is hope for Hector, as he is in a member country of the European Union. His dreams of knocking on the door in Switzerland are still standing, and his greatest desire to touch the United States has not thawed.